A/N: Finally done!!!! I apologize for the long wait and for the extended time frames. I have been working a lot more over the past two weeks, which is good for my bank account, but really bad for my writing schedule. I have fallen alseep with my laptop open in my lap after writing a grand total of two sentences five times this week. This post is severely unedited and most of it was written in a half dream state at 2:00 am. Hopefully it will still surprise you and keep you guessing!
So...Cheers and happy reading!
Chapter 46: Outside Alone: Part 3
“Then why do you fucking care?”
The man still holding the knife asked, voicing all of our shock. Dumbfounded expressions crossed all of the drunken men’s previously terrified faces. The werewolf’s rebuttal of their apologies seemed to shock them into a non-alcohol related stupor, but unfortunately it didn't make their choice of questions any more sophisticated.
“Why save this pathetic human bitch?”
I would have taken offense to that if I hadn’t been scared enough to wet my pants and dizzy enough not to know if I was. However, this did not mean that the drunken man’s comment did not offend anyone.
The Beta’s eyes flashed from steel grey to jet black in an instant, his canines elongating somewhat in his human state. The slanted light illuminated his fangs at sharp angles, matching the dangerous predatory edges of his face.
All of the men took a step back, realizing their fear of the monster before them once more. Surprisingly, the monster did not growl as was expected for most of his species. He just showed his enlarged denture and began to make a noise which at first confused me and then made me doubt my own sanity.
“That bitch has a gun pointed at you.” The Beta chuckled darkly.
The men all spun around to find that the monster before them spoke the truth.
The shock on their faces was almost equal to that of my own.
I didn’t even remember drawing the weapon, but somehow I was gripping the cold heavy steel of my father’s pistol in my surprisingly steady handcuffed hands. The weight of this realization seemed to ground me, reducing the spin of the frightening world. Now that I had my hands on an equalizer, the panic that I had felt was abating.
The men seemed to realize the severe shift in their circumstances as much as I did, unfortunately for them the tables had been temporarily turned in my favor.
“You have three options, Juniper.” The Beta dictated bluntly, bringing their gaze from me back to him. They looked even more petrified than before, shooting wild glances between the rock and hard place that now entrapped them. “You could let these rats scamper out of here, you could shoot them, or you could allow me to dispatch of them on your behalf.” As he reached the end of his list, he let the beast inside twist more of his features, elongating his face and sharpening all of his teeth into wicked razors. “The choice is yours.”
My sobering eyes surveyed the group of men before me.
They were absolutely terrified. Most of them were shaking and there was one with an unmistakable stain on the crotch of his pants where he had pissed himself. Gone was the threatening faces and drunken confidence. All they were now was a group of frightened animals, seeing their deaths flash before their eyes in multiple ways.
Somehow, all that I felt for them in this moment was a mild disgust.
“Let them go.” I found myself whispering, my voice not sounding like it belonged to me.
The Beta did not hesitate to step out of the light and clear the path he had blocked in the ally. The men still stood in the stiff circle they had formed, scared to move.
“Go before I make you.” his voice growled at their unmoving forms. The sound of his growl made the men scramble to get out of the ally, practically falling over each other in their haste. Those men tried to kill me. Those men were going to do God knows what to me.
I let them go.
It was only after the fact that I realized that by letting them go I had taken the sheild of victims that had separated me from the Beta. He had stepped back into the flickering light as the men retreated, his gaze still attached to their frantic figures. His eyes were still black and his fangs remained in full view.
“You gave them a head start, but they will be punished for their crimes.” He growled low in his throat, bitterness cloaking his tone.
I aimed the gun at him now, my hands beginning to tremble slightly once more.
The Beta was bigger than me, stronger than me, faster than me, and could without a doubt get to me before anything but a head shot could stop him. His canine ears flickered back to me before he redirected his gaze, taking in my stance with a blank expression. His eyes slowly flickered back to grey and his face jerkily shifted back to human form.
The transition seemed to jar him a bit, forcing him to take a swaying step back as the bones rearranged. He shook his head several times as if to clear it, while blinking repeatedly. I had never seen a transition so disjointed before, painful looking.
Was there soemthing wrong with him?
Before I could put much thought into that notion he was back into complete human form. Once he seemed to regain his focus he rolled his shoulders, wincing slightly during the motion, before settling his steel eyes upon me.
“There is not time for that. We need to get off the street.” He stated, seeming otherwise unaffected by the fact that I was pointing a weapon at him which had the potential to end his life. Did he not know that the gun held silver bullets? Did he not take me seriously?
“This gun isn’t filled with normal bullets.” I managed to choke out past the burning feeling in my throat.
“I know.” He replied evenly, still not taking his grey eyes off of my panicked face. “But shooting me would end badly for you.”
I glared at him incredulously, subtly adjusting my grip on the butt of the gun.
“If you think I’ll miss, you are mistaken.” I stated, trying to keep my rough voice as smooth as possible even though my palms were beginning to sweat and my knees trembled in exhaustion.
“I don’t doubt that you would kill me.” he rejoined, holding his ground even with my threats. “Do it and all three patrols searching the block will know exactly where you are.”
Three patrols? Searching the block? Searching for me?
I quickly reviewed my position. I was water logged, chilled to the bone, possibly had a concussion and was handcuffed.
There was no way that I was going to be able to outrun three patrols after they heard a gunshot at this distance. If I killed him, they would find me. If they found me, they would kill me. I focused my thoughts back up to the werewolf before me.
“You’re lying.” I accused, trying to call a bluff.
“What reason do I have to lie?” He countered.
“You want to use me to find Red.” I rejoined, the thought of him finding her and hurting her making my spine straighten. I would not help him find her. I would not betray my friend.There was nothing he could do to force me.
“I doubt that you know where Red is. You wouldn’t tell if you did.” He spoke softly, his hard eyes still not moving from my face, but seeming to unfocus slightly.
For a moment I stood there, utterly confused.
“You aren’t going to…threaten me?” I asked, baffled by the behavior of the man before me. What was wrong with him? Why wasn’t he trying to eat me right now? My dizzy eyes tried to focus on him as much as possible, looking for a reason for his super calm behavior. The sum of my observations left me more confused than before. He was paler than usual and dark rimmed circles hung under his eyes, making his face look hollow. His stance seemed off too, but I couldn’t put into words how it was different than before.
“With what?” He asked calmly, his eyes coming back into focus as he asked the question. The weight of his words hit me like a ton of bricks. What could he threaten me with?
My sister?
Even if she was probably in the most dangerous situation of her entire life, she was still beyond my protection or his danger.
My friends?
Both of us had no clue where they were.
There was only one thing left I could lose.
“My life?” my voice echoed in the ally, filling the void of silence that had stretched between us while I was deep in thought.
“You’d die for them without hesitation.” He sighed, his gaze becoming somber as he examined me. “Must be genetic.”
While part of me was confused by the latter part of his comment, the rest of me was still trying to figure out what the hell the Beta was doing here. What game was he playing?
He wasn’t going to use me to find Red.
He didn’t think he had anything in which to threaten me.
He wasn’t concerned that I could pull the trigger and mortally wound him at any moment.
“Then why are you here? Why are you here instead of…him?”
The words tumbled out before I could contain them or edit them. The monster before me cracked a small smile that did not match his serious eyes.
“Because your plan of disorienting us did its job on Sean. You must have changed clothing to be able to leave the false trails.”
He knew we exchanged clothes? I thought about the tight fitting shirt and pants that I had been wearing the night of the escape. They were the absolute biggest size of Red’s clothes. I could still picture her grinning face when I shoved them on. I believe that she called me a "not so green, giant."
“You followed my trail because I was wearing Red’s clothes.” I concluded hesitantly, keeling my eyes on my opponent.
“At first.”
At first?
“You didn’t change course after you figured out I wasn’t Red.” I wondered out loud.
“No, I did not.” The monster replied, still unmoving from his position. A million questions ran through my foggy mind at this point, but the most important one fell from my lips without much thought.
“Why?”
For the first time since the drunken men has scattered, the Beta’s face twisted with real emotion. It was probably the most emotion I had ever seen on his face. To this day, I am not quite sure how I would process the expression. It was if sadness, guilt, shame, resolve and undeniable determination could be wrapped into one.
“Because after years of being blinded, I can finally see, control myself, and remember every bit of the monster I have been to Re-Regina in the past two years” he confessed, his hands closing into tight fists. “But I never forgot what happened to you four years ago, what I was forced to do, and how much danger you are in now because of those actions.”
If I had been trembling before, the Beta’s words caused me to vibrate. What he said broad sided me, in a way that kicked my stomach high into my chest and caused a panic to set in so severe that it was almost worse than what I felt when I was surrounded by drunken men set on hurting me.
Four years ago?
Images straight out of my nightmares filled my head.
My father’s mangled body.
The dark pool of blood that surrounded him.
The red stain on my clothes that never came out.
Lifeless blue eyes which would haunt me forever.
My recovering perception of the world once again began to tilt as I hyperventilated. While I managed to keep the gun between us, the rest of the ally seemed to spin around it, making me want to throw up. My view of him was spotty at best, fecks of black invading my vision.
Four years ago?
“We need to get off the street.” He repeated after the silence had drawn out between us long enough for his voice to startle me. Four years ago? Four years ago. My father died four years ago.
Was he part of it?
“Sean will be here within the hour.”
Did he see my father die?
“You have to keep moving or you both will be in great danger.”
Did he kill my father?
“No.”
I looked up at the Beta, not realizing that in my fuzzy panic induced state I had been asking these questions aloud. Through my narrowing vision, I caught the Beta’s eyes.
They were calm, clear, and absolutely sincere.
“I did not kill your father” he clarified, taking a step toward me in the process. I could feel the world around me becoming dimmer as my vision darkened and the slight buzzing of the street light became a thunderous pounding hum.
“But I couldn’t stop the man that did and I fear that might haunt me forever.”
Those were the last words I heard before, for the third time in my life, I passed out.